The creation of a europen company from three national leaders

Arcelor, the steelmaking group, is the result of a merger between three national companies, Aceralia (Spain), Arbed (Luxembourg) and Usinor (France). This merger continued to rationalise the number of individual steel-producers in each of these countries which had been the case for the last twenty years, and which had been mainly financed by the State, because the steel industry has always had more producers than the number of suppliers and clients. The steel is facing a number of challenges, including having to cope with saturation in the markets of developed countries, the explosion of Chinese demand, and having to react to price margins. Arcelor has to convince its executives of the need to transform the group and harmonise the different management styles in order for this merger to succeed, which, curiously, has been easier with three partners than it would have been with two.